The Horror Squad (Book 3)

by TJ Weeks

  He turned to look at me once again. “I have no doubt, sir. I’m telling you the truth though. Tiffany is the only person here. She’s a nurse that has been helping me.” He replied.

  I put a hand under his arm and lifted. “Well, let’s go meet Tiffany.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  ROBIN STOOD carefully and

  cautiously before getting back on the cart and driving back up to the building. “So do I just holler out and get her to come outside?”

  We stepped off the cart while keeping a good eye on the door. I grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the cart. “No, we’ll go in. No need to freeze to death standing around out here.”

  I put him out front, but with a firm grip, just in case shots rang out once the door came open.

  He opened the door slowly and walked in, taking no chance of getting shot.

  “That was fast.” Tiffany called out.

  Robin took a few more steps before responding. “Yeah, I met a few more people.”

  She walked out of a small room and looked out and waved to us. “Well, hello. Give me a second to wash my hands and I’ll come out and meet everyone.”

  I tightened my grip on Robin. “Take your time.”

  The sound of running water broke the silence and turned off after a matter of seconds and she came walking out with a hand towel drying her hands.

  She walked over to Bo first and held out her hand. “I’m Tiffany Earnest, it’s nice to meet you.”

  Bo shook her hand. “Nice meeting you, I’m Bo.”

  I released my grip on Robin and shook her hand introducing myself.

  She had short spiked up dark brown hair and wearing glasses. Her outfit screamed Tomboy.

  “What brings you here?” She politely asked.

  “Food.” I quickly answered.

  She smiled. “I’ve got a few things in the back if you’re hungry.”

  “Thank you, but we were thinking more long term.” I responded.

  “Ah, you’re after the animals.” She quickly cleared the air. “I tell you what, you take us with you and we’ll help.”

  I stepped back with brief confusion. “You’ve been taking care of these animals since the apocalypse went down and you’re ready to just let us kill them off?”

  She threw her hands up on her hips. “We’ve been here because we didn’t think any part of the world existed anymore. I’m a nurse, not a

  veterinarian…Besides, we’ve been eating what we needed as well.”

  Robin took a step towards her. “I don’t know if I can agree to let them kill all of the animals. Are we

  supposed to just sit back and watch everything go extinct?”

  I threw the sling of my rifle over my shoulder and let it drop down my back. “We can take you with us, that’s not a problem. Our base has a lot more people than just us and you would make a damn good asset to our team with your training.” I turned to Robin. “You can go or stay, makes no difference to me, but if you haven’t noticed…the world is already extinct. However, we’re doing what we came here for, so just know that feeding my people is way more important than sparing your life.”

  He stepped back a few steps with his head held down low, then looked up. “So when do we start?”

  I cracked a smile. “Right now. We need some gators or something that has some balls to it to get the animals we kill to the restaurant to be skinned and quartered up.”

  “We’ve got about a dozen out back.” Tiffany stated as she started walking towards the back.

  We all started following.

  I turned to Robin. “Grab your tranquilizer guns, we may need

  them.”

  He shook his head in

  acknowledgement and walked away.

  We continued following Tiffany to the back. She opened the overhead garage door and there sat about a dozen gators lined up in four rows.

  “Keys are in them and they’re already topped off in fuel.” Tiffany stated.

  I’m sure my eyes were in a wide stance. “Well, let’s not waste any time and we’ll take one each, but travel in pairs so we have a hunter and

  someone to help load. Once you have your gator loaded, get your kill over to the restaurant so the girls can start skinning, quartering up and packed in ice.”

  Tiffany smiled and looked over. “You have women with you?”

  I started laughing. “Yeah, they’re already spoken for.”

  She kind of rolled her eyes and jumped on one of the gators.

  Robin came out in a slow jog with five tranquilizer guns.

  “ The teams will be myself, Gizmo and Daltin. Bo, you take Steven and Robin. Tiffany, we’ll take you over to the women so you can get acquainted and you can help them out. Each team gets two tranquilizer guns.” I stated.

  “I can hunt.” Tiffany quickly added.

  “Okay, then take Steven to the women and let him help with what he can and take Tiffany with you.” I told Bo.

  “Works for me.” Bo responded. “Of course you’re going to put me with the women.” Steven stated. “Just shut up and go, you one armed bastard.” I quickly shot back. He climbed in one of the gators. “I don’t need to be escorted.”

  “No, but the women need to me et Robin and Tiffany so they’re not startled if they take them a delivery and get shot.” I stated.

  “Where are y’all headed?” Bo asked.

  “We’re going to the alligator pond first and get them out of the way.” I turned toward Robin. “Do you know how many are in the pond?”

  “There’s eight total, but only five of them have any decent size to them.” He responded.

  “Sounds good.” I called out before shifting my gator in reverse and pulling out.

  Daltin rode with me, Gizmo followed close behind.

  We pulled out of the gate and turned to the left onto the bridge that went over the alligator pond. I

  stopped about midway across and jumped out.

  “Are we really going to hunt alligators?” Daltin excitedly asked. “Hell’s yes we are.” I answered.

  I could see three decent size

  alligators sitting on the muddy bank, two that were about four to five foot long. I pulled my bow out and loaded my first arrow. I drew back and took aim at one that was about twelve foot long. I let my arrow fly. It made contact at an angle from the side of its neck and into its head. It thrashed around viciously and threw itself into a death roll on the bank, breaking the arrow off. Finally it stopped moving, but turned upside down.

  One of the alligators shot into the water from all the commotion. The others remained on the bank.

  “Ah! You fucker, that’s the one I was about to shoot.” Gizmo stated as he took aim at the next one that was about the same size.

  You could see him trying to control his breathing before releasing the arrow.

  The arrow came launching from his bow and struck the alligator almost in the exact spot that I had just shot the other, but this one didn’t do all the dramatics, it just died.

  “So what’s your plan? Are we just going to jump in and grab those two or are we going to take out the other six before we climb in there?” Gizmo asked.

  I looked over at him like he was stupid. “You can jump in there if you want, but I’m going to wait until we get them all before my ass is getting in any pen with a fucking

  alligator…Besides, it’s not like their meat is going to ruin anytime soon, it’s like thirty-five to forty degrees out here.” I quickly responded.

  “That’s true, I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.” He replied.

  I loaded my next arrow and drew it back and took aim to a little five footer that was slowly making its way back into the water and shot. It hit right through its head and pinned it to the ground.

  After about an hour, we had finally taken out all eight alligators. I

  strapped a rope to the side of the fence and drove off tearing it down. I then grabbed a long chain and

  wrapped it aro
und the alligator’s necks one at a time and pulled them out onto the walking trail with the gators. Gizmo helped me load the smaller alligators into the backs of our gators and we secured the chains on the others and started dragging them over to the restaurant.

  “What do you want us to do with that?” Kris asked as we pulled up.

  “Hell, Steven is an old redneck, he should know. However, if he doesn’t, just get all the meat you can off them. Cut their tails off right behind their ass and save all of that.” I answered.

  “You want their tails?” Tina

  chimed in.

  “Well fuck yeah, that’s where most of the meat is.” Gizmo responded.

  “Okay, we’ll do what we can.” Kris stated while trying to help get the alligators unloaded.

  We pulled the smaller ones inside. It took three of us to pull the bigger ones, but we just pulled them close to the door.

  “Has Bo’s team brought anything yet?” I asked.

  Kris grabbed at her back after heaving the beasts. “Nope, you’re the first one.”

  “Fucking right doggy, that’s

  because we’re god damn caboys!” Gizmo stated.

  I started laughing . “You’re fucking stupid. Load up and lets go see if we can’t get some fish and snakes from the aquarium.”

  “I ain’t fucking with no snake!” He quickly stated.

  “I didn’t say we were going to go play with them. I’m not fucking with a snake until I know it’s good and dead either.” I responded.

  He agreed and we set off to the aquarium.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  PULLING UP in front of the

  aquarium, Daltin and I jumped out, followed by Gizmo pulling up and joining us. We all walked in through the double doors, our eyes took a minute to focus in the creepy darkness of the inside and we slowly started walking the circle of exhibits trying to figure out how we could get them all out without having to actually go in since the viewing side was nothing but glass.

  “I’ll get the fish and you get the snakes.” Gizmo called out.

  “Fuck that! I don’t even know how many snakes are in each exhibit and several of them are poisonous.” I responded.

  Gizmo walked over to one of the snake exhibits. “I’m just being honest with you when I say I’m not going in any of them. I really think we should just try our luck somewhere else, because even on the fish side, it’s mainly alligator gar and they’re not good eating.”

  I agreed that this was not going to be the best of ideas. “So what do you want to hunt?”

  We exited the dark dwellings of the snakes that neither of us were willing to mess with back into normal

  daylight.

  “Let’s st ick to what we know for now and go hunt the white tail deer and bison.” He suggested.

  I started walking away from the exhibits. “I was wanting to give our backs a rest, but let’s do it.”

  We could see Bo’s team out hunting antelope and caribou as we passed through. They had quite a few loaded in the back of their gators. I pulled passed them and stopped for a moment and watched. I could see Robin and Tiffany doing fairly well at helping out. I pulled back off and stopped again once we got to the deer and bison cages.

  Daltin hopped out as soon as we stopped, I sat there for a few moments trying to give my back a small break before toting deer or even

  worse….buffalo.

  “Come on, we’ve only got a few hours of day light left.” Gizmo called out from behind me.

  I tossed my legs over the side. “Yeah, I’m coming.”

  I could see a plethora of catfish in the moat below that separated the exhibit from the fence. “Maybe we can find a net and snatch some of these catfish to bring back.”

  Gizmo walked over and looked over the side. “Yeah, there’s

  definitely some big ass fish in there.”

  “Hey, Daltin, take my gator and ride back around the bend to Bo and ask Tiffany if they have some nets.” I suggested.

  Daltin smiled real big being asked to help. “Okay dad!”

  Without question, he jumped in my gator and pulled off.

  I walked to the end of the exhibit and climbed past the moat on the side of the fence before dropping down. The deer and buffalo started walking towards us.

  “This is barely even hunting. All these animals see us and come to us, thinking we’re bringing them food.” I stated.

  Gizmo hopped down from the side of the fence. “Are you really bitching about it? At least we can get this done and get back home, not sit out in the woods for hours at a time and bring home maybe one deer per week.”

  I pulled an arrow and snapped it into my draw string. “Not bitching about it, I’m just saying…this is like killing our dogs that we raised up to trust us.”

  I pulled back on the bow and let my arrow fly plunging it into one of the bison. It dropped its front legs down to its knees, then fell over.

  Gizmo had already taken out one buffalo and one deer by the time I had my next arrow ready. I shot another bison that was flipping its tail and making his way over to me.

  “Dad!” Daltin called from the other side of the fence.

  I looked over to see him standing there with Tiffany and the rest of Bo’s group. “Did you want to come see how real hunters do it?” I started laughing.

  Bo grabbed the side of the fence and climbed over to us before

  dropping. “No, we figured we would come help y’all out before it gets dark.”

  “That’s probably a good idea because there’s no way we could get all of them in a load on our own…. Where’s your catch?” I responded.

  Bo started laughing. “We already dropped them with your wife and grabbed a net for Daltin.”

  “If you want to have one person help Daltin net fish, the rest of us can finish off the buffalo and deer, then get them loaded up.” I suggested.

  Bo turned around. “Hey Tiffany, can you three start bringing the gators around here while we hunt and then after you get all of them around here, Robin, I want you to help Daltin put out the net for the fish.”

  Tiffany agreed and they all started moving the gators.

  “How the fuck do you get them out of here?” I questioned.

  “I’m not sure, she just said there’s a way.” Bo answered.

  I grabbed another arrow. “Well, okay then.” I started walking toward another bison before letting another arrow fly.

  We got about two more kills under our belt when we could see the rest of the group heading our way from the far side of the exhibit.

  “DAD!” Daltin hollered.

  I looked over towards his voice. Robin was helping him hold up a net full of fish. I gave him a thumbs up and turned back to my kills. “Load them up son and get them back to mom, good job boy.”

  Night had come crashing over us by the time we got all of the kills up and over to the restaurant. Everyone joined in on skinning and quartering everything up.

  “Do you know what the count is?” I asked my wife.

  She was in the middle of filleting one of the catfish. “Yep, we’ve got eight alligators, ten bison, seventeen deer, fifteen antelopes, twenty caribou and one-hundred and fifty four catfish.”

  I looked over at Daltin. “God damn, you’re beating all of our asses.”

  He smiled real big.

  Kris tossed the remains of her fish into a trash barrel. “We’re going to have a problem though.”

  I grabbed another catfish. “What’s the problem?”

  “We’re not going to be able to fit all of this in the ice chests that we brought.” She replied.

  I started thinking. “What if we clean the shit out of the back of the deuce and just load all the rest that hasn’t been skinned in the back of it and pack it all with ice and the ones that have into the ice chests? It’s cold as shit outside, so it should be good to get it home.”

  “Where is everyone going to ride to get back home?” Gizmo asked. I continued filleting out my catfish. “Th
at would be the only problem.”

  Tiffany cleared her throat. “We have a deuce here and an eighteen foot enclosed trailer.”

  “Are you fucking serious?” I s tated before the thought even had enough time to fully circulate through my brain.

  She kind of giggled. “Well, yes. We have to have things to move the animals around and if you haven’t noticed. We have some big ass animals around here.”

  “Problem solved.” I answered.

  Tiffany laughed a little harder. “We also have another working ice

  machine back where you found us.”

  I looked up in almost a disgust. “That information is useful and would have been awesome if offered

  earlier.”

  “You never asked and I figured you already had a plan.” She replied.

  I gripped my hands on the side of the table. “Do you have any more trailers?”

  “We have a smaller enclosed trailer. It’s a ten footer, I believe.” She answered.

  I started filleting again.

  “Okay…Here’s the plan. We’ll use one of the deuces for the ones that have not been skinned yet, the big trailer for meat, the other deuce to haul us home and the small trailer for the ice chests of meat and the two ice machines.”

  Robin quickly grabbed his thumb. “Damnit!” He called out after filleting a small portion of the end of his thumb.

  Gizmo started laughing. “Yeah, that should work.” He looked back at Robin and started laughing again. “Are we popping your cherry on filleting things out?”

  Robin was sucking the blood from the top of his finger. “I used to fish a lot when I was younger and help my dad fillet out our catch, but it’s been years since I’ve had to do it.”

  “Is this all the catfish we have left?” I asked.

  “Yep, the rest is already packed on ice.” Kris responded thankfully.

  I finished filleting the catfish that I had in my hands and laid the fillet knife down on the table. “Finish filleting what you have in your hands and we’ll go grab our deuce and move it over here and then figure out sleeping arrangements. It’s cold enough that we don’t have to get all of this done tonight anyway, we can wait until we get home.”